We were in Japan for 30 days and had a few big ticket restaurants we wanted to visit. On our second day in Tokyo we went to Shima, near Ginza, known for their Wagyu beef. We had booked in advance, budgeted $500-$600 and brought cash — it was meant to be one of our ballout experiences for our honeymoon. The steak was roughly $180 for 150g (but their shtick is to weigh it in front of you and it’s always much over the listed weight).
At the time, the Canadian dollar was an easy exchange — you could just drop two zeros from the Yen and that was approximately what it was in Canadian. 3000 Yen = 30 CAD with quick math.
Here’s the kicker — I am a career server. I have some decent (but modest) wine knowledge including several accredited courses. I am mostly familiar with American wine and Italian wine. My husband let me pick the wine and I was interested in a Châteauneuf-du-Pape for $150 or a Bordeaux for $130. He was encouraging me to splurge on the Châteauneuf-du-Pape… it’s our honeymoon afterall! I opted for the Bordeaux thinking it would be better with the meat; a 2014 Château Haut-Brion. The host kept coming over to us saying things like “very special wine.” I was confused because I was like, lady, we already bought it… you don’t need to sell it to us. It was incredible and I took a picture of the label, thinking this is really good for $130. Too good for $130, as it turns out.
We were seated at the bar where all the action happens, watching the old master sitting on a stool as he grills on his rotating skewer. It was pure magic. The man seated next to me was from Upper Eastside New York, joined by his family. His young children ordered more expensive steaks than we did. He too had a Bordeaux, albeit more modest than ours, I would come to learn.
The experience and service was incredible. When people say Wagyu melts in your mouth, you never truly understand until you’ve had it. 11/10
At the end of the meal I went to the washroom while my husband got the bill. I came back and I could see a look of sheer terror on his face. The host had brought him the wine list and he was looking at the price of wine we ordered.
We had missed a zero. What I thought was $130 was in fact, $1300.
Thank God we didn’t order the $1500 wine.
The host realized our mistake, all the staff realized our mistake, my buddy next to me now shied away from me as I said in a hail Mary “we missed a zero!” As if this rich newyorkan was gonna help us out. My husband desperately asked if credit card was ok, she said yes. She took the card and processed it, returning it to us and showing she had deducted $300 from the bill. Our food was almost entirely comped.
Embarrassed and horrified, we quickly left. A chef stopped us on our way and handed us an entire cheesecake, to which I said “we didn’t order this!” He forced it into my hands.
Once outside, my husband and I made a pact to not be upset. We couldn’t afford it, but we wouldn’t let it ruin the rest of our *barely started* trip. We left and bought a pack of smokes at the nearest konbini. I don’t smoke.
When I returned to work a month later I told my sommelier about my blunder. He asked what wine cost you that much?! Welp, apparently I got a steal of a deal for that bottle. Because you can’t get that house and vintage for anywhere near that price in Canada. Guess I’ve gotta brush up on my wine knowledge.
We are returning to Tokyo this fall and my dream is to go back to Shima for dinner and bring the receipt to show them the kindness they showed us by taking off $300 when it was clearly our mistake. But also to gift them some Canadian ice wine or something.
Edit: spelling
by Odd_Pea_104
38 comments
Reading this while i go on yakitori in Ameyokocho
Edit: forgot Highball
lol, happy about the happy end in the end kinda. write it off as an experience 😀 Thanks for sharing and enjoy the next trip!!
At least it seems like the place comped you and gave you some free stuff after. Could have been worse for sure. Thanks for sharing though that was interesting, what a great restaurant.
Great story, and don’t worry about it. You won’t remember the feeling of terror ten years from now, when you are making a lot more money, and you now have a hilarious anecdote to regale friends at dinner parties for the rest of your years. The reaction of the restaurant also shows why I love Japan so much. Not saying it happens every day, but in my experience this kind of kindness happens more in Japan than in other countries in which I’ve lived.
Well, how was the bottle?
Did you take up smoking because of this incident ?
> bring the receipt to show them the kindness they showed us by taking off $300 when it was clearly our mistake
I am not Japanese and welcome to be corrected, but wondering if this is a good idea as it can come across like rubbing a accommodative once-off kindness in their face. Pouring the staff a glass of the drink you ordered this time (i.e., buying them a drink from their place on your bill) may seem a little more appropriate.
What was the wine? With the $300 off, I assume the bill was $1k. If the wine had been $130, your bill would have been $430. So you can look at it as a $570 mistake rather than a $1.3k mistake!
That was a fantastic story! Laughing on the other side of the world here. Love the bit about buying smokes 😂 surely you’ll get your monies worth telling this story for years.
This is the reason I visit fine dining establishments. It’s more about service than food.
Not as bad as yours, but I bought a shirt for $250 that I thought was $25. Paid with cash. It wasn’t until I was out of the store did it dawn on me how much I paid. At least I get compliments when I wear it. (It was a Psycho Bunny shirt that would have been cheaper had I bought it in the US, my home country. They doubled the price from the online price.)
Damn that was the real strong zero
I too missed a zero on my recent trip, thankfully it was just for a suitcase (I thought I was getting a heck of a deal for ~$30 luggage). Turns out math is really hard when you’re also dealing with foreign language, being in a different place, etc.!
Glad it all worked out for you though. When I go back I’ll be sure to drop by Shina for some wagyu, the meal sounds lovely.
Lovely story!
On the plus side… you’ve now tried one of the five first growths, so basically a top 5 wine from Bordeaux.
Haut Brion. Oh yeah that’s a 1300 bottle. Bet you it was really nice. What CdP was 1500? A Rayas?
I did the same thing when I was getting a massage.
yeah you won’t find any first growths like haut-brion for $130 in any restaurants. It’s very nice that they took $300 off though.
What a great story, thanks for sharing!
Just cover the 2 zeros with your fingers, and it’s almost a straight conversion.
Hope you guys had a wonderful honeymoon. Can you share a link to that restaurant specifically? Can’t seem to find it in google
My favourite part was the buying of the stress cigarettes. 😂😭 I’ve been there!
Happened to me but with a couple of T-shirts haha I thought each was $16 and I was surprised by the quality for just $16!!! It turns out it was $160 each once I looked at the credit card transactions
Bought a nice flatcap for 130€ because i didnt want to be cheap.. but if i had known the Price in eur i wouldnt have bought it..
The thing I’m sour about is that you would have enjoyed the wine more if you knew how much it have cost
I hope they packed steak sandwiches for you on the house too. IG photos of the sandwiches got me hyped to try Shima myself. in the end I was so full I couldn’t do it.
I don’t think you owe them anything when you return. I’m pretty sure they were almost as worried as you were, assuming you might file a credit card chargeback. If you return, I bet they will comp you something even if you don’t bring a gift. 😬
Hey, at least it’s not because you stumbled into a shady bar and they tricked you into forking up a ton of money. I’d rather it be my own fault that I have to pay more money.
This is a great story in the way you tell it is full of humility and optimism. It put me in a really good mood because of the way you handle things and the way they handle things and a lot of really cool people. And I’m so sorry about the $1,300 but I think the memory of how beautiful the night was makes it somehow worth it. But just wow. But thank you so much for sharing because it is well written and worth the read.
Sounds like thr restaurant were super gracious. Its potentially an easy mistake to make. I’m sure the mark up was huge so they probably didn’t lose out. Glad ot worked out well
Whats “comped” mean?
if you had the wine for $1k, its a steal, its almost market price, likely they didnt charge service fee and cellar fee. Good on the restaurant with helping you out there. I like the idea of you giving them a gift back, especially ice wine from canada. I hope you have a good trip this autumn.
Something like that happened on my trip but it was more about paying for reservations thinking the meal was included only to learn that was just the price to get a seat! Then having to pay the bill at the end!
I had to hurry with my friend back to our hotel and canceled the other two restaurants we had planned once we realized what was happening after the second restaurant. It wasn’t that big of a loss but horrifying none the less.
I’m just going to stick to ramen and cheap sushi if I ever go back.
Being a career server and having taken many wine courses, I find it odd that you didn’t recognize one of the 5 first growth Bordeauxs?
Haut Brion is splendid, I’ve never seen a 1994. That’s awesome. I’ve had very expensive Bordeauxs. It’s a really nice experience because the taste sits in your mouth a whole minute after you’ve swallowed and it keeps getting better. I’ve never had waygu but I sure want to.
I also purchased $600 tea cups from Japan I definitely couldn’t afford because I missed the 0. It was also our honeymoon, so we said screw it after processing the horror of the mistake. We only realised after it was beautifully packaged and we’d had a lovely impromptu tea ceremony with the owner. It was too late to back out at that point!
At least you got something out of a pricey mistake. Our travel companion in Japan booked a reservation where you pay in advance, and mixed up the time zones so we missed the time. The restaurant did not refund us the $500, and we didn’t get a meal that night, which was supposed to be a special Thanksgiving occasion for us.
This story is so sweet. The whole time I was in Japan I was so worried about doing something like this. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t understand the conversions 😬.
I’m Canadian and I’ve also nearly made that mistake while in Japan. Almost bought $600 figures when I thought they were $60